Railway-car



(No Model.) r 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

J. A. BRILL.-

RAILWAY GAR.

No. 398,222. Patented Feb. 19, 1889.

l P v e- WWWWUFFW WITNESSES. INVENTOR/ XX; 5 (2x22:- I

ATTORNEY (No Model.) 2 Shegts-Sheet 2.

\ l J. A. BRILL.

RAILWAY GAR.

No. 398,222. Patented Feb. 19, 1889.

a u WITNESSES [Ni EN TOR l M A. awe, Q m u n S Q ATTORNEY.

llrrnn dra'rns armar i men.

JOHN A. BRILL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

RAILWAY-CAR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 398,222, dated February 19, 1889.

Application filed September 20, 1887. Eerial No. 250,210. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern-.-

Be it known that I, JOHN A. BRILL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway Cars, of which the followingis a specification.

My invention has relation to cars propelled by electric motors the current for which is derived from storage-batteries located upon the cars.

It is well known that a capacity of storagebattery necessary for propelling an ordinary street-car for an average length of trip will weigh from about three to six thousand pounds, (more or less,) and that the weight of the same is so much additional dead-weight for the car to carry and support. It is also well known that the most convenient location upon the car for the storage-batteries is under the seats. It is further well known that the ear-bod y frame must be strongly connected to and firmly supported upon its sills in order to stand the strain of wear and tear and to support the weight to be carried, and itis for these reasons that vertically and diagonally arranged braces are located adjacent to the sill-pieces between the posts for the frame of the car-body. It is still further well known that in street-cars the location of the wheels at the center of the car admits of the runninggear supporting the load or prevents sagging of the car at the middle. Consequently the diagonal braces between the posts for the carbody are not used; but in lieu thereof short vertical posts or bars are employed; and it is also known that cars supported upon truckframes located near the ends of the body have no corresponding support for their middle has been found that the present condition of the road-beds, particularly those for street- 1'ai1ways,is such that they cannot stand'the increased force of the hammering of the wheels upon the rails due to the weight of the storage-batteries, and to obviate this described objection the cars are placed upon trucks to distribute such weight as much as possible.

The present mode of placing the storagebatteries in position beneath the seat and removing them therefrom is from the side of the car, and to admit of doing so the sides or panels of the car between the top of the seat and the sill-pieces are loosely connected or hinged to the car-body frame so as to be removable from the car or dropped down out of the way, and the batteries are separately lifted into and out of the car. To admit of placing the batteries beneath the seats, as described, however, the veriical and angular braces heretofore used between the posts of the carbody frame must be cut away or dispensed with, or otherwise the batteries cannot be placed in position beneath the seats; hence the car-body is weakened at its parts requiring the greatest strength, and when so weakened it has to support and carry the large additional deadaveight of the storage-batteries. Consequently, if the car be a street-car with the wheels in the center, it is not as strong and durable as the usual form of same, and, on the other hand, if it have trucks at its end to distribute the load the body is not properly braced and it sags in the middle, and is not therefore strong and durable. Again, as each storagebattery cup or section is manually handled and successively inserted into and removed from the car they must be electrically coupled and uncoupled whenever they are moved into and out of the car, and as this consumes time considerable delay is Occasioned in effecting the removal and replacement of the batteries.

My invention has for its object to avoid the objections above set forth, or, in other words, to provide for quickly and easilyinserting all the cups or sections of the battery simultaneously in position beneath the seat and removing them therefrom without in any manner necessitating coupling or uncoupling of said sections and without weakening the car= body or changing its usual form of construction. To accomplish this I place the battery in position under the seat and remove the same from the end of the car, and to admit of doing so I make a door in one of the ends of the car adjacent to the seat and also a door or flap in the dasher in line with the door in the end of the car and have suitable rollers or wheels, preferably in the ear-floor below the seats, for a tracked platform, upon which the battery-sections properly coupled together, either permanently or otherwise, are placed,so that all the battery-sections for one side of the car can be run under the seat at once, and at their far end circuit-connections are preferably so arranged that they automatically couple with and uncouple from the motor-circuit when the battery is inserted into and withdrawn from its position beneath the seats.

My invention accordingly consists of the apparatus for inserting storage-batteries into and withdrawing them from the spaces beneath the seats of street-cars, and of the novel combination, construction, and arrangement of parts, as hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof, wherein- Figure 1 represents an elevation, partly sectional and partly broken away, of a streetcar and truck with storage-batteries arranged relatively to one another for showing the manner of placing the batteries in the car in accordance with my invention; Fig. 2, a perspective of part of one end of a car-body, showing doors in the end of the ear and in the dasher; Fig. 3, a plan of part of the car in section, railway-tracks at a station, and transferring-trueks for the storage-batteries; and Fig. 4, an end view of part of car-floor, traekway thereon, and storage-battery.

Aindicates a street-car having adjacent to its seats a the usual vertical. braces or short posts, a, and, if desired, the angular braces a between the car-body posts a all of which are constructed-in the well-known manner, except that in the rear end of the car adjacent to the spaces a beneath the seats 'openings a are provided, which are closed by hinged or removable doors (o having any suitable form of fasteniugs, either locks or otherwise.

Upon the rear dasher, B, and in line with the doors a, are hinged or removable flaps b, and upon the floor beneath the car-seats are journaled in suitable bearing brackets, c, grooved or other suitably-con figured rollers or wheels C, a pair of which is located at intervals along the length of the floor. Upon the rollers or wheels rest the tracks (Z, secured to the bottom of a plank or support, D, having preferably flanged edges or sides d for firmly holding in a fixed position the storagebattery sections or cups 1, coupled together in series or multiple are, orotherwise, and rest in g upon the same, as more plainly illustrated in Fig. t. The tracks (I are preferably of a half-round configuration in cross-section to fit correspondiugly-shaped grooves in wheels or rollers 0 but said tracks and grooves in the rollers'may be'of any other desired form in cross-section. These rollers or'wheels O are sunk in the floor or have their bearings so 10- cated that the bottom of the groove in the wheels projects slightly above the surface of the floor to clear the same, and this is prefer ably done to admit of utilizing, as near as may be, the full height of the spaces a beneath the seats for the storage-batteries The far-end couplings for the batteriesare preferably composed of a fixed or rigid pin, f, and a socket, f, which may be a single piece or composed of two spring-metal plates of the usual or any desired form of construction. (See Fig.1.) The sockets fare shown. affixed to one end of the ear, below the seats on each side of the car, one socket f for each battery-tray, and from these sockets lead conductors or wires to the motor, the opposite ends of the battery-trays being electrically connected in any desired manner after the trays are inserted in position in. the car. The conductors or circuits, however, between the battery-trays and between the sockets f and the motor are not shown in the drawings, as the manner or system of arranging or coupling them so to include the batteries and motor in circuit may be made as de sired, and forms no part of myinvcntion. As one of the couplings, f orf, secured to the far end of each battery-tray and the other to the adjacent end of the car, and as each pair of such coupling-eonneet-ions is in line with each other, they automatically engage and disengage to make and break connection when the battery-trays are respectively run into the car-spaces a or are withdrawn therefrom. v

To insert the batteries into and withdraw them from the car, I provide at the depot or other replenishing-station a narrow gage of track, G, bridging the gage of track G for the car-wheels, (see Fig. 3,) which narrow gage is provi ded'with suitable turn-outs or curves. Upon this track run trucks H, of a height approximating that of the car-floor and having at their forward ends a hinged or removable way or plank, h. The latter, as well as the trucks, has rollers or wheels C, upon which rest the tracked planks or supports D with the storage-battery to be .run into the can.

To do this, the doors at the end of the car and the flaps on the dash er'are thrown open or removed. The truck II, with the battery thereon, is run up to the car, the hinged plank 71 being meanwhile raised to pass through the dasher-openiu g and over the car-platform, upon which it rests to form a bridge or track- ;way across theplatform, or from the truck H to the wheels 0 beneath the seats. The platform, with the battery thereon, is then easily runinto .the space a. beneath the seat, and during the last part of its'movement the coupling at its'far end engages with the fixed coupling upon the'car to automatically complete the circuit of said battery and car-motor.

lV-hen the battery is removed from the car, an empty truck, 11, is first run up to the car, as above described. The battery is then run I out .of the car upon the truck, and it is moved,

out of the way of another truck, upon which is a battery to take the place of the one previously removed. To effect these described movements of the truck without delay, the turn-out or switches g g are arranged for the narrow-gage tracks, which turn-outs may be arranged as shown or otherwise, as needed.

I do not herein claim the described method of placing the battery upon a movable support, and then simultaneously propelling both the support and battery over one of the platforms of the car into position within the car,

as such method forms the subj cot-matter of a separate application filed 23d day of February, 1888, Serial No. 264,985.

lVhat I claim is 1. A car having openings in one of its ends, doors or covers for said openings, and roller guides (J, having bearings in the floor of the car, in combination with movable platforms or planks D, having rails d on their under sides, substantially as set forth.

2. A car having openings in one of its ends, doors or covers for said openings, dasher B, having hinged sections Z) in line with said carend openings, and roller-guides 0, having hearings in the floor of the car, in combination with movable platforms or planks D, having rails (Z on their under sides, substantially as set forth.

A car having longitudinally-arranged seats, end dashers, openings in one of the car body ends and in the dasher adjacent thereto in line with the spaces below said seats, doors or covers for said openin in the car end, and dasher for effecting the transfer of storagebatteries to and from the car, substantially as set forth.

i. A car having hmgitudinally arranged seats, end dashers, openings in one of the carbody ends and in the dasheradjaeent thereto in line with the spaces below the seats, and doors or covers for the openings in said carbody end and dasher, in combination with movable platforms or planks Din said spaces and guide rails and rollers between said planks D and the floor of the car, substantially as set forth. I

5. A car having longitudinally-arranged seats, end dashers, openings in one of the carbody ends and in the dasher adjacent thereto in line with the spaces below the seats, and doors or covers for the openings in said car body end and dasher, in combination with a removable platform or plank, D, substantially as set forth.

6. A car having end platforms, flashers thereon, longitudinally-arranged seats, with spaces between the seats and the car-floor, and openings in one end of the car and in. one of the dashers in line with said seat-spaces for effecting transfer of storage-batteries to and from said seat-spaces across the end platforms, substantially as set forth.

7. A car having openings in one of its ends, removable doors or covers therefor, and removable or hinged dasher-sections in line with said doors, substantially as set forth.

8. A car having longitudinally-arranged seats, end dashers, guideways on the floor be low said seats, and openings in one end of the car and in one of the dashers in line with the space below the seats, in combination with movable planks or platforms D, adapted to said guideways, substantially as set forth.

9. The combination, in a car having seats and spaces beneath the seats, of the fixed binding-post sections f at one end of said spaces, openings at the opposite ends of said spaces, and removable covers or doors for said openings, with traveling planks or storage-battery trucks having at one end bindin g-post sections f, for engagement with and disengagement from said sections f when the trucks are inserted into and withdrawn from said seat-spaces, substantially as set forth.

10. The combination, with a car having openings in one of its ends and track-rails for said car, of narrow-gage track-rails bridging the ear-track rails and a transferring-truck having on it guideways and at one end a movable or adjustable guide-plank or platform, snbstmitially as set forth.

11. The combination, with a car havin openings in one of its ends and track-rails therefor, of narrow-gage track-rails with turn-outs bridging the car-track rails and a transferring-truck having an adjustable or movable guide-plank, substantially as set forth.

12. In combination with a car having end openings, at, dasher doors or sections 1), and coupling-sections f, located at one end of the ear below its sea-ts, movable planks or platforms C, supporting storagebattery sections having at one end coupling-sections f, for engagement with coupling-sections f, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix. my signature in presence of two witnesses.

, JOHN A. BRILL.

Witnesses:

S. J. VAN STAVOREN, TH. RANDALL. 

